Editorial: Restoring K-12 funds should be a priority

Of more than $1 billion in cuts to school budgets last year, Gov. Rick Snyder is restoring less than half, most of that in the form of incentives to schools faring well under performance accountability standards. The kids in Albion, meanwhile, stand to lose their high school.

Austerity and fiscal restraint have many faces in Michigan. Among those we think of most often attend schools in impoverished neighborhoods, schools that have paid the highest price for so-called reforms that siphon resources away from districts with the greatest challenges.

The governor is a businessman, an accountant who is working to restore sound fiscal and business-friendly policies to a state that has been bleeding red ink for much of decade. He deserves some of the credit for the more recent rebound in manufacturing that has helped the state realize something unheard of not so long ago: a surplus.

Michigan could wind up with a surplus of about $483 million in this fiscal year, and so of course recent debates have been about how best to use that windfall. Build up the rainy day fund? Invest infrastructure improvements?

All are logical, but not all are affordable. Here, then, is a call for balance.

The policies intended to make Michigan more economically competitive have come at a price, and middle- and low-income citizens have paid that price. Lawmakers agreed to tax public workers' pensions, reduce the state's Earned-Income Tax Credit for the working poor, and remove or reduce other tax exemptions and deductions.

Public education, which should arguably be the state's top economic development imperative, is getting short shrift in this administration, and schools with the toughest challenges are getting the least support.

Facing a surplus, the state should be looking to restore funds to K-12 education, supporting those communities that have suffered most in Michigan's battered economy.

The call for shared sacrifice, when it's necessary, would mean more if the sacrifice were shared equitably.

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Editorial: Restoring K-12 funds should be a priority

Of more than $1 billion in cuts to school budgets last year, Gov. Rick Snyder is restoring less than half, most of that in the form of incentives to schools faring well under performance